Homestar Runner/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A character sheet for the surreal web animation series Homestar Runner.

Note: Most characters are voiced by Matt Chapman, apart from Marzipan (Missy Palmer) and the Powered by The Cheat characters (Mike Chapman)


Homestar and Friends

Homestar Runner

File:180px-Newest Homestar 9833.png

Evewybody loves the me! I'm a tewwific athlete!

Ostensibly the main character of the site. Homestar is a dim but (usually) lovable doofus with no arms and no clue. He means well, but his idiocy often leads him to accidentally say and do things that alienate his friends. Seems to think that he and Strong Bad are buddies, to the chagrin of the latter.

Marzipan

I'm a fiercely independent woman, and I'm fiercely independent about the soy products I choose.

Homestar's on-again, off-again girlfriend, largely by the fact of being the only major female character on the website. Marzipan is a grade-A Granola Girl whom Strong Bad has described as "a dirty hippie, without the dirt". She has a tendency to protest things at the drop of a hat. Marzipan has also expressed artistic leanings: she frequently sings and plays songs on her guitar Carol, and has been showing painting and indulging in other forms of arts and crafts from time to time.

Pom Pom

(bubble bubble)

Homestar's best buddy. Despite looking like an orange-and-yellow ball with an ovoid head and arms and only communicating through bubbling noises, Pom-Pom is apparently a hip, tech-savvy ladies' man.

  • The Ace
  • Acrofatic: Despite his ball-like shape, he once jumped over Strong Badia and the Concession Stand in a single bound, after jumping through the treetops of a nearby forest
  • The Artifact
  • Beware the Nice Ones: He's been voted 'most likely to beat everyone in an all-out death match' ever since he pummeled Strong Bad for trying to pop him with a pin. He's also a martial arts master and has an itchy trigger finger when it comes to firearms, so watch out.
  • Chick Magnet
  • Demoted to Extra: Was introduced as Homestar's best friend and played an important role in the site's early history as a favorite of The Brothers Chaps (starring as the only character in their first ever Flash and getting his Day in the Limelight well before the site caught on in popularity), but seems to have sunk more into the background as of late, thanks in no small part to his role as The Unintelligible limiting his potential for jokes.
  • Intelligible Unintelligible
  • Kavorka Man: Pom Pom apparently gets a lot of chicks, despite being a giant bouncy ball thing.
  • Mary Sue: {in-universe} Strong Bad seems to think so.

Stupid Pom-Pom and and his boring physical superiority.


The Brothers Strong

Strong Bad

You don't know it yet, but I'm the real reason you're here. Check me out! No, seriously, check me out.

Arguably the real main character of the website. Strong Bad is an egotistical fellow who appears to be wearing boxing gloves and a luchador mask, though it's explained those are what his face and hands actually look like. His hobbies include tormenting his neighbors (especially Homestar Runner, Marzipan, and Strong Sad), responding to e-mails from his fans, and playing retro video games. His pet peeves include Homestar and people asking him "How do you type with boxing gloves on?"

He is one of your opponents in Poker Night At the Inventory, along with The Heavy, Max, and Tycho.

"30 WHOLE MINUTES!! Can you believe!!-yeah okay, we're losing our edge."

  • Small Name, Big Ego
  • Smoking Is Cool: He enjoys the occasional cigar, and the office he is usually working in almost always has a lit cigarette in an ashtray next to him.
    • The ashtray only appears when he's playing the eponymous hardboiled P.I. in his homemade Dangeresque films.
      • He's never actually seen with one in hand, so it's possible that he just likes the smoke filling the air.
      • He actually DID smoke a cigar once, though there's no way of seeing the short toon anymore. To see it, you had to buy something from the store between 5 AM and 11:59 PM, but even then there was only a 1/3 chance that that was the one you would see. And on top of that, they discontinued the store messages in 2008.
    • Coach Z once finds him "smoking," but Strong Bad denies he's a smoker admits it's just a white crayon he like on fire so he can use to get a smoke break after he'd taken up all the other types of leaves including maternity.
  • Talking in Your Sleep: For some reason, he tends to mumble names of various Super NES games while dozing.
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Trope Namer. His anime counterpart, Stinkoman, has blue hair for some inexplicable reason.

Strong Mad

I'M STRONG MAD!!!!! [beat] I DON'T LIKE THIS MOVIE!!!

Strong Bad's hulking brute big brother. Doesn't say much, but what he does say is always said in a sort of guttural half-shout. Best buds with The Cheat.

Strong Sad

Each day, we die a little more.

Strong Bad's depressed, sarcastic punching bag younger brother. Years of being picked on by his brothers have given him an outlook on life that's as grim and gray as he is. Strong Sad is fairly smart, though, and occasionally gets one over on Strong Bad.

The Cheat

Meh!

Strong Bad's small, yellow, unintelligible, and snarky pet/lackey. He supposedly lives in the King of Town's grill, but hangs out in the house of the Brothers Strong to work on his computer, Tangerine Dreams, where he makes his own Flash cartoons (usually with badly-drawn and voiced members of the rest of the cast singing the praises of the Cheat and giving him trophies).


Other Main Characters

Bubs

I'm a self-made man, I am, I am! I sell hot dogs, chili dogs, slaw dogs, ketchup dogs and mustard dogs. I got drinks, drinks, drinks, candy and snow cones. I can fix everything what needs fixing. Like cars... TVs... marriages...

Enthusiastic (and not entirely honest) salesman and handyman, and proprietor of Bubs' Concession Stand. Also something of a party animal.

Coach Z

I have more than two praeblems!

A lonely, vaguely creepy, and quite possibly crazy coach and aspiring rap artist with an exaggerated Midwestern accent ("Great jaerb, Homestar!"). He was originally just someone to whom Homestar came for advice, but the Brothers Chaps have played up the seedy side of Coach Z's life to the point that it now dominates his character.

The King of Town

Now, despite rumors to the contrary, I did not just buy a crown at the costume palace and ask people to start calling me the King of Town. I earned my title the same way I earned a free combo meal: by purchasing one of equal or lesser value. I also did not ever try to eat my own mustache.

The self-proclaimed ruler of Free Country, USA, who's really just a fat, gluttonous old man who happens to have a crown, a castle, a retainer of servants, and a painful awareness of how unpopular he is with the other characters. He's tried to make himself more popular, with limited success, by doing things such as learning to play guitar and trying to get his very own quite popular cartoon show.

The Poopsmith

...

The King of Town's most prominent (and disgusting) servant, the Poopsmith is an odd fellow who, as the name suggests, shovels whatsit for a living. Also, for some reason he has taken a vow of silence. According to Homestar, "The Poopsmith is a good guy. He's just got a crappy job."

  • Beware the Nice Ones: The Poopsmith is the King of Town's personal law enforcement agent.
  • Satellite Character: To the KoT.
  • Talking with Signs: Despite the fact that he doesn't talk, he has, on rare occasion, used this to communicate.
  • The Pig Pen: Considering his job, he always has some whatsit on his gloves.
  • Toilet Humour: Basically all the humor that revolves around him either involves this or his unexplained vow of silence.
  • The Voiceless: He doesn't speak because he has taken a vow of silence, which seems to be a requirement for his job. Until he broke that vow in email thunder, in which he finally sings. And he is voiced by John Linnell.

Homsar

I'm a song from The Sixties!

A short, pudgy fellow that vaguely resembles Homestar, and speaks in warbling non-sequiturs. He's apparently capable of defying the laws of physics whenever he feels like it and is an even bigger Cloudcuckoolander than anyone else in the cast (or maybe anyone else in the world).

  • Armless Biped
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty: Homsar never claimed to have been raised by a cup of coffee. Strong Bad imagined that as being the sort of thing Homsar would say. However, it seems that Strong Bad was right.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Uhh, holy crap.
  • The Ditz
  • Eloquent in My Native Tongue: As seen in episode 2 of SBCG4AP.
  • Killed Off for Real: Some fans think he was, thanks to the ending of A Decemberween Mackerel. Others think he isn't, and will come back alive and well again eventually.
  • Invisible Anatomy
  • Magical Native American: Is a parody of this in episode 2 of SBCG4AP. Despite still being voiced by Matt, he even somewhat sounds like John Redcorn for a few minutes of gameplay.
  • Nice Hat: Which moves in erratic patterns whenever Homsar speaks. It's even capable of shapeshifting.
  • Reality Warper: One of his defining traits.
  • Rouge Angles of Satin: He owes his very existence to this trope.
  • Talkative Loon
  • Word Salad: Almost everything he says constitutes as one, minus the things he says early on before Strong Bad drops the Heavy Lourde on him, implying the injury caused him to speak in word salads. He occasionally drifts back into sense-make, as seen in the sbemail "for kids":

Homsar: That's a real popular song! Who wants to hear of it fifty times more?

Alternate Universe Characters

Teen Girl Squad

A badly-drawn comic made by Strong Bad. The main characters are 4 girls who only want one thing: Boys. Lots and lots of BOYS. However, more often than not, everybody dies before this is accomplished. See its own page for applicable tropes.

Old-Timey

Fat Dudley, The Homestar Runner, and Old-Timey Marzipan

The universe in the style of 1930s cartoons. As in the original children's book, Homestar is "The" Homestar Runner. The characters have to deal with economic hardship as well as the schemes of the Old-Timey Strong Bad. Other recurring characters include The Homestar Runner's friends Old-Timey Marzipan and Fat Dudley (Pom Pom), Strong Bad's lackeys The Sneak (The Cheat) and The Strong Man (Strong Bad), Sickly Sam (Strong Sad), the Fort Wayne Locomotive (Coach Z), Old-Timey Bubs, Mr. Shmallow (Marshie), and Rumble Red (probably Nebulon). Old-Timey versions of the other characters also show up in most episodes.

20X6

Stinkoman, 1-Up, and Cheatball


The Animesque 20X6 is the future where all the Homestar characters have Japanese cartoon versions of themselves. Here, everyone seems to be obsessed with challenging, especially Stinkoman (Strong Bad). There is currently a game, in which Level 10 has been released in 2020.

Stinkoman: Oh man, those first 400 bites of dirt were not so good. Maybe the next one will be better.

Cheat Commandos

Top row, L-R: Silent Rip, Fightgar, and Ripberger; Bottom row, L-R: Crackotage, Gunhaver, Firebert, and... Cracotage again?


An Affectionate Parody on G.I. Joe and other merchandise-driven cartoons from The Eighties. Every character (not counting the voice actors and A. Chimendez) resembles The Cheat.

Gunhaver: We've got, like, 50 of them.

Crackotage: Movie night is my favorite night. I think it is my favorite night!
Silent Rip: Are you even trying anymore?

Sweet Cuppin' Cakes

L-R: Sherlock (the cowcopter), Eh! Steve (with D-ween styles), The Worm, Keyboard Strong Bad, and The Wheelchair


When Strong Bad is challenged by a viewer to make "[his] craziest cartoon", the result is something so bizarre even he doesn't understand it. Sweet Cuppin' Cakes is apparently about a half-cow/half-helicopter creature who tries to get a little worm out of the ground, and a wheelchair (voiced by Bubs) who chases a talking trapezoid named Eh! Steve... but who can tell? Strong Bad himself is also a character, except his head is an old keyboard that plays the demo music when he gets angry.

Dangeresque

Dangeresque and his sidekick Reynaldo


A character played by Strong Bad in a trilogy of home movies produced, written, directed, and starring himself. He's a private and/or police detective who doesn't play by the rules, aided by his sidekicks Reynaldo (played by Coach Z) and Dangeresque, Too? (played by Homestar). The rest of the cast play various supporting roles, and Strong Sad plays pretty much everyone's beleaguered stunt double, mostly against his will.

Psuedocharacters

In the HR world, many of the characters tend to treatother objects like they were people. Some of them actually might be.

Strong Bad's Computers

All of Strong Bad's ancient computers seems to have their own minds, and they all seem to hold grudges. Although the deaths of the Lappy and Tandy didn't bother him much, The Compy being shot affected him greatly. He started off with the green-screened Tandy 4000, until it blew up,, then moved to the Compy, which was shot by Bubs, and then the Lappy, which Strong Bad blew up. He now uses the Compe.

  • Anachronism Screw: With the exception of his most recent computer: Strong Bad uses old styple command prompt computers
  • JackassComputer: The Tandy somethimes ignores Strong Bad's orders fully. Other times, it takes advantage of Exact Words.
    • Strong Bad: "Delete."
    • Tandy: "Saved. Forever."
  • Reality Warper: When the Compy is infected with a virus that infects reality
  • Back From The Dead: The 1st and second computers

The Papers

  • two perspective altering printers and a pop up. They usually appear at the end of an email to prompt an email to Strong Bad.

The Stick

Wagon Fulla Pancakes

The Benedetos

Misc.

The Goblin

An amless green critter who turns up most Halloweens, the Goblin looks around, does a dance, and disappears for another year. The rest of the characters don't seem to like him that much--until he saves them from a Carnivorous Undead Sheep in "Most in the Graveyard".

Homeschool Winner

A scrapped taller looking character resembling Homestar, only blue and with an overbite. He appeared once on a now hidden trading card animation, and in the background of the game Dancin' Bubs. Matt said in an interview that he was made after a friend thought their website was called "homeschoolwinner.com". They describe him as incredibly smart and more than a little creepy.

Limozeen

I got the heart of a lion and the wings of a bat--BECAUSE IT'S MIDNITE!

The greatest hair metal band in the world (at least in Strong Bad's eyes), made up of brothers Larry (vocals), Gary (lead guitar), Perry (bass), and Mary (drums) Palaroncini. They sing songs about love and living in the fast lane, do gigs in Free Country USA and beyond, and have never quite left 1987. They had their own Saturday morning cartoon show in the '80s that was canceled before the first commercial break. Their manager is the nerdy Doug Teegland, and Strong Bad is their biggest fan.

Nebulon

A little green alien who floats around in outer space. No one likes his style.

Senor Cardgage

Cargeenan, Monteljohn, can you detect me to the nearest bus stamp?

An older, vaguely sleazy man who constantly uses nonsense-words. Strong Bad looks up to him; Marzipan looks down on him. While he lost the non-sequitur championship to Homsar, he's still not exactly known for his eloquence. He carries around a grocery bag full of melty candy bars that he eats loudly.

Shark-Tooth Bubs

An alternate version of Bubs with two dot eyes, a set of fangs, and a unicorn-type horn coming out of his head. Unlike most of the H*R cast, he's voiced by Mike instead of Matt. Like the regular Bubs, he runs (or claims to run) a concession stand (in his case, called "Eight Burgers"). As with most of Mike's characters, his appearances are few and far-between. With the exception of his debut in Theme Park, he has only appeared as a puppet or as a voice on the DVD commentaries.

Looks and name aside, his personality is only marginally similar to his better-known counterpart. Think of a slightly more articulate version of Homsar or Senor Cardgage and you're probably on the right track.

The brothers came up with the character after a Chinese toy designer sent them prototype plush toys of some of the characters. They were very amused at how the designer misinterpreted Bubs's eyes and mouth and decided to work him into one of their upcoming cartoons (The Theme Park email). They initially put him in a cartoon as an Affectionate Parody of unlicensed toys. However, every appearance since then has been as a character (complete with spoken lines) as opposed to just being a prop.

  • Ascended Extra: Not much of one, but considering that his first appearance was as a mere prop...
  • Cloudcuckoolander: just listen to him on Puppets on the Road on the 4th Strong Bad Email DVD or on the DVD commentary for Long Pants.
  • Jive Turkey
  • The Man Behind the Man: The Curly-Fried Caper
  • Nothing Personal: "Sorry Piles, I've got my own styles."
  • Rousing Speech: "Heaven help us! Let us rest in the wake of the hours beneath! For tomorrow is a grand style! Courageously affording the brothers of our...Lester Brothers."
  • Rule of Three: See the Running Gag below
  • Running Gag: In Puppets on the Road, while in Philadelphia, he keeps referring to "the chicken man", a Philadelphia-based crime boss.
  • Turncoat: Appatently, he doesn't care who owns the pile, so long as he gets to be "pile manager".

TROGDOR the BURNiNATOR

Trogdor was a man!
I mean... he was a dragon-man!
Er... maybe he was just a dragon...
But he was still TROGDOR!!! TROGDOR!!!

A stick-figure dragon with one beefy arm drawn by Strong Bad when a fan asked him to show his "skills of an artist", Trogdor is a monster who comes in the night, burninates all the people who live in thatch-roofed cottages, and generally terrorizes the land of Peasantry. Created as a one-off joke, Trogdor proved immensely popular thanks to his rocking metal theme song and soon starred in his own video game, and the legend grew from there. A full-length text-based Adventure Game, Peasants Quest, introduced the heroic peasant Rather Dashing, who will stop at nothing (sans burnination) to stop Trogdor.

"You internet types ruined Trogdor! Just like you did zombies, pirates, ninjas, and Strong Bad! Er, wait, no. Yeah!"

  • Heavy Mithril: His theme song.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: For starters, he has sticks for legs, tiny wings, disembodied eyebrows, and one big beefy arm sticking out the back of his neck.
  • Perfectly Cromulent Word: "Burninate".
  • The Red Baron: "The Burninator", "the Wingaling Dragon", etc.
  • Throw It In: The small "i" in his official all-caps name is there because the font the Brothers Chaps used didn't have a capital "I", but it looked funny enough to keep.
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